Based on the disastrous denouement of Frankenstein, the take-away message is that human life is not an invention that humans themselves can intervene or tinker with as a kind of improvement project. This novel remains relevant today, given the modern preoccupation with cloning, genetic modifications based on our preferences, and similar technological and scientific interventions that change the nature and fabric of our existence.  It is also worth mentioning that while many often to think of modern novels when they hear mention of “science fiction” as a genre, since this was one of the first novels in the genre, it is only fitting that the complex questions posed in it about the nature of humanity and individuality in science fiction and what defines human nature continue to be explored in light of ever-changing technology.

A similar theme is engaged in Keyes’ “Flowers for Algernon”, in which Charlie Gordon, a young mentally handicapped man who “want[s] to be smart” (Keyes 1) undergoes scientific procedures that are intended to help him become intelligent. As a human being, he is limited to a certain defined set of skills and capabilities. While mere skills alone do not quantify “human-ness” in  “Flowers for Algernon” by Keyes, they are an important part and thus in this work, as in others, the main problem presented revolves around an effort to change nature or a set of naturally-occurring human circumstances or characters. For Charlie Gordon in “Flowers for Algernon”, these procedures have only been tested on animals (3), not on people; Charlie will be the first human participant. The procedures achieve this goal in  “Flowers for Algernon”, at least temporarily, but raise a host of questions about how much we identify our humanness with how intelligent we are. Although Charlie demonstrates all sorts of skills and insights that suggest he has an acutely developed and attuned emotional intelligence, he is marginalized in a society that prizes intellectual competence and functioning as one of the defining characteristics of what it means to be human.

In “Flowers for Algernon” the reader is drawn into some of the most profound contemplations about humanness through the author’s skillful provocation of empathy and compassion, but not pity, for Charlie. The reader also sees how the people in Charlie’s life change in response to him as his intelligence increases and then wanes again. This dynamic also prompts difficult questions about how humans treat one another because of the quality and quantity of perceived characteristics that make us sentient beings. Like Shelley’sFrankenstein, the theme of “Flowers for Algernon” remains relevant in a contemporary context. As our society grapples with the possibility, for example, of selecting the preferences of our children’s physical and intellectual capacities by the debatable process of genetic engineering, we must question again and again how we define what it means to be human, and perhaps more importantly, how we value human life. What Keyes seems to suggest in “Flowers for Algernon” is that we have not satisfactorily resolved the answers to these persistent questions. On the contrary, through scientific advancements we constantly create new questions that we think bring us closer to realizing the meaning of life, but which actually push farther away from it.

As demonstrated in various works of science fiction from its inception to its modern form, the genre of science fiction is constantly seeking to define as well as to challenge what it means to be human. As technology has evolved, offering innovative and sometimes morally questionable ways of manufacturing and sustaining human life, so too our fears and complex anxieties about what we will become if we allow certain aspects of our “humanness” to become perverted or overly influenced by technology or artificiality. The power and possibility of science fiction, then, is epitomized in these two novels. Though Frankensteinand “Flowers for Algernon” were written in two different time periods and though their plots, character types, and the techniques used to develop them differ significantly, they ultimately share a thematic similarity. Both authors are skillful in developing a compelling and engaging story around a timeless and universal theme, and that is the process of defining what it is that makes us human.

Both Shelley and Keyes approach the idea of what it means to be human in “Frankenstein” and “Flowers for Algernon”, though, through the development of a central character and situation in which the definition of humanness is arrived at by exploring the perversion of humanity and an attempt to make humanity better than it is. While not overtly political or pedantic, this approach is characteristic of science fiction. As Smith writes, “[[S]cience fiction [can be viewed] as a refuge or platform from which writers can espouse radical ideas or make scathing commentary on the contemporary society (7). Shelley and Keyes do exactly that. Both authors ask why we are so frequently motivated to attempt perfection when all past experiences suggest that such efforts are not only in vain in terms of accomplishing their goals, but often destructive and morally questionable. Beyond this “scathing commentary”, however, is a more profound effect of their work, and that is the degree to which it confronts and compels the reader to grapple with questions that are so basic to our identity and yet so persistently unresolved. Shelley and Keyes do not attempt to use their science fiction novels to answer those questions for us. Rather, they invite us into the dialogue and leave us to make our own thoughtful interpretations.

Other articles in the Literature Archives related to this topic include : Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: Morality Without God  •   Identity, Alienation, and Science Fiction: Neuromancer and The Left Hand of Darkness    •   Feminism & Science Fiction : “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” and “When It Changed”   •    The Presence of Romanticism in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Works Cited

Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon. New York: Harvest Books, 2005.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 7th ed, Vol. 2. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2000.907-1034.

Smith, Warren. “‘I am a man, and nothing human is alien to me’: Alienation and freakishness.” In Smith, Warren, Matthew Higgins, Martin Parker, and Geoff Lightfoot, eds. Science Fiction and Organization. New York: Routledge, 2001. 177-190.

Smith, Warren, Matthew Higgins, Martin Parker, and Geoff Lightfoot, eds. “Introduction.” Science Fiction and Organization. New York: Routledge, 2001. 1-12.